Girl’s Day – “I’ll Be Yours”

Girl’s Day are a four member girl group from Dream Tea Entertainment, and have been active since 2010. With some member switch ups in the early days, the current 4 members have been together since late 2010. Even though they haven’t had a comeback since 2015, this comeback has been one of the most highly anticipated comebacks of 2017, to date. With a 21 month hiatus, I’d love to think the members were just waiting for the perfect song to release. I’m excited to check out their latest song.

I’ll Be Yours

Song

The first thing that becomes apparent with this release is the obvious influence of swing music. The snapping fingers and the horns put me in mind of jazz halls and retro vibes. It actually reminds me a lot of their release “Darling” in this way, it has a similar tone to it, and it instantly had my attention to see where they were going to go with it. The first verse ends pretty quickly, and we are flung straight into the chorus. At first, it’s a little jarring, as the smooth, swing vibe is replaced with intense electric guitars. I feel as if the chorus of this song almost comes out of nowhere, and the song feels a little disjointed for it. However, I don’t believe that it is as jarring as some other shift and tone changes in current releases (looking at you, GOT7!), and I think I will eventually get used to it.

The lyrics themselves are more confident than I have seen from most girl groups lately (with maybe the exception of “Finger Tip” by GFriend), The whole tone of the song oozes a playful confidence that is very welcome, considering Girl’s Day have been around a long time, and are older than a lot of the other girl groups active currently. The lyrics are a mix of telling their prospective partner to come and get them, as there is no need to be afraid of rejection (considering how they will be his anyway), and teasing him of what he can expect. I love the lyrics that play on the other senses, not necessarily just the words we hear. For example.

“Like a flower scent at the end of your nose, I want to tickle you”.

Whilst it’s always nice to hear Girl’s Day’s vocal talent, I find myself drawn again and again to Minah’s vocals in this track. Her voice suits the vintage vibe perfectly, and she does a fantastic job of telling me the story of her song with just her tone.

Video

The video itself for this song is a little incoherent. I feel as if the “story” of the song doesn’t really translate to the video that we get. The images of the members in various settings, such as a boxing ring, elevator or barber shop seem almost inconsequential because of what is happening there. Each of the members gets to have power over the men in those particular cuts. Hyeri especially embodies this as she literally knocks a guy out from one punch. The connection between the playful confidence of the song lyrics and the almost cartoonishly over the top reactions to the members by the guys in this video are at a disconnect. Coupled with the disjointed nature of the chorus from the song itself, the video only seeks to reinforce the disjointed feeling. The scenes that we are presented with don’t seem to flow together, even within the reality established by the MV. We have Hyeri in the boxing ring, Yura in the piano room, Sojin in the barbershop and Minah in the hallway/elevator. The images themselves are striking, especially Yura and the piano. Clearly a lot of work went into making the styling effortlessly and the contrast between the styling and the background is beautiful.

However, I am a big fan of the opening shot of the high heels shown walking. It matches the swing vibe that the opening of the song has perfectly, and seems to set a retro vibe from the very beginning. It really helped draw me into the song, and left me curious as to how the video could go from there.

There are two dance breaks in this MV, where the members are dressed in the same outfits, but in different colours (white and silver). Even though we get two dance sections, we actually see very little of the choreography. I did enjoy the very interesting section with the small benches and the backing dancers. I always enjoy dance routines where there is a prop, and the group executes it flawlessly (SHINee’s “Dream Girl” is an excellent example of this).

Summary

Probably not my favourite of Girl’s Day’s catalogue. I didn’t fall in love with it as instantly as I wanted to. The chorus being so different from the rest of the song throws me each time I hear it, and I will definitely take some time to get used to it. I really didn’t like the MV. It’s not special, nothing to remember it. It has already blended into other MV”s even as I write this, and it’s not even a week old.